Practical, useful & pretty
with Katie Rushworth
This post contains affiliate links
Three words by which to measure a garden – practical, useful, pretty. It’s a mantra to which Katie Rushworth returns repeatedly in her garden design practice, but there’s more to her notion of a good garden than a formula. Gardening, she admits, quite literally saved her, pulling her out of a postpartum fog and restoring her sense of identity. So while all the elements of a good garden can be in place, Katie finds herself continually searching for something deeper which, she admits, comes about from connection to a garden over time.
“It can look as pretty as it wants, to but I need that feeling from a garden, I need that kind of...chest ache, and I think that comes from any garden that has been loved”.
Brought up in inner-city Leeds, it’s the moorland countryside of the Yorkshire dales where she now lives that looms large over her work, and the faculty to marry an awareness of the wider landscape with the restraints of smaller domestic space is one of the aspects that energises both her designs and her role as a gardening mentor.
The episode begins with me battling to be heard over a particularly vocal blackbird, before we’re treated to a passage from episode 74 of Ben Dark’s The Garden Log podcast, in which he considers the benefits of gardening in one place over many seasons.
Please do continue to share the podcast on social media, and if you’d really like to brighten my day, leave a review on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. Or drop me a note in the comments section below, having listened on the embedded player on this page.
Gardens, weeds and words podcast, S02E09 show notes
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.
These notes may contain affiliate links.
Garden soundtrack
Birdsong, and gardening in the new normal.
Gardening in one place over time.
Reading 04:00
Extract from The Garden Log Podcast, episode 74, read by the host, Ben Dark. https://thegardenlog.libsyn.com/
Interview with the Katie Rushworth 05:51
06:21 Not the only Yorkshire-born gardener on the telly…
07:00 Katie’s experience of nature and plants growing up
09:29 Chomping for wood!
10:12 The place of the Yorkshire landscape in Katie’s garden design work
11:44 Gardening is about a feeling
12:43 Before gardening…
16:32 Juggling gardening, TV schedules and being a mum
17:43 Transferrable skills – an appreciation of colour, shape, form and texture
19:11 Garden coaching and mentoring
26:35 Domestic gardens
27:21 Practical, useful & pretty
30:42 The biggest obstacles people face in their gardens
32:54 Plants – just pretty window dressing, or more than fluff?
36:25 Productively using our time in the garden
***
Thank you to Katie for joining me on this episode. Katie’s book Plants, Beds & Borders is available here https://amzn.to/3ayCySE
Katie's website: http://katierushworth.com/
Katie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thequeenofspades00/
I’m ever grateful to all my listeners for your continued support and reviews, I really do appreciate them. You can support the podcast by buying its producer a virtual cup of coffee for three quid, at https://ko-fi.com/andrewtimothyOB. Proceeds will go towards equipment, software and the monthly podcast hosting fees.
website: gardensweedsandwords.com
email: gardensweedsandwords@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/AndrewTimothyOB
Twitter: twitter.com/AndrewTimothyOB
You can hear find the podcast trailer and the first four episodes here, either on iTunes or on Switcher.
Click the button below to subscribe!
Lockdown discounts: A year of garden coaching
I’ve been very excited about my new venture – even before the lockdown I’d decided that online garden coaching would be a fantastic way for me to work with more people than I can physically get around to, helping them to make the very best of their gardens in a way that suits the life they lead. With the all the uncertainty around our lives just now I’m holding the the introductory price for the full 12 month programme as well as offering a quarterly payment plan, and there’s 50% off an hour’s Skype consultation call. Please click here to book your place.
If you’d like to receive blog posts in your inbox as soon as they are published, enter your email in the box below to be added to the Gardens, weeds & words mailing list.
Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.
